An SUV rear-ended another car onto the
tracks in front of an oncoming Long Island Rail Road train.Victor Alcorn

Two people were injured when an SUV rear-ended another car onto the tracks in front of an oncoming Long Island Rail Road train near the Riverhead station Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

The driver of a silver Mercedes sedan was stopped at the Mill Road cross guard in Riverhead eating ice cream around 1:45 p.m. when a gray SUV rear-ended her, ramming the car through the gate and into the path of a westbound train, an MTA spokesman said.Victor AlcornThe SUV then slammed into a power supply box on the south side of the tracks and shattered its front windshield, while the destroyed Mercedes ended up on the north side parallel to the tracks.

Two of the five occupants riding in the cars were rushed by helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital, where one is in critical condition and the other is good condition, the spokesman said.The driver of the Mercedes being transported by first responders to a helicopter.Victor Alcorn
Miraculously, no one was killed in the accident.

MTA authorities were still investigating whether the Ronkonkoma-bound train hit one or both of the vehicles.

Meanwhile, MTA officials believe the lack of fatalities indicated the train had slowed down before the crash.

“The train engineer would have applied the brake,” a spokesman said.

The train had left the station minutes before the crash and had only traveled around 1.2 miles.

The train left Greenport to the east of Riverhead at 12:58 p.m. and was expected in Ronkonkoma at 2:22 p.m.

None of the 15 train passengers were injured in the crash, though one was later taken to the hospital for a panic attack.

MTA briefly provided buses for passengers due to delays caused by the crash.